New Players Join Casts of Genesis League and Battle-Prov in ComedySportz’ Weekly Three Hours of Comedy for Two Bucks

The affordable Wednesday night series at the ComedySportz Theater returns with three great improvised shows every week! And it's only $2 for the whole night!

At 8 pm, two teams, selected from the five all-new Genesis League teams, breathe life into short-form improv with newly created games!

At 9pm a brand-new Battle-prov ensemble takes on a different challenger each week in a bout of improvised hilarity! The new players are Chip Aucoin, Brit Belsheim, Katie Dufresne, Rob Grabowski, Davide Grody, Shantira Jackson, Josiah Jenkins, Kelsey Kinney, Jonny Nelson, John Pantlind, Damian White, and Molly Wilbanks.

Rounding out the night at 10pm, the foul-mouthed Stevens Family hosts the FUN-derdome where anyone can join in the fun!

And as always, the bar is open from 7:30 pm on past the end of the last show.  Call 773-549-8080 for more information.    

The Chicago Sun-Times needed attendees of the massive Bank of America Marathon Health and Fitness Expo on Friday, October 5 and Saturday, October 6, to spend time at their booth, so they called on ComedySportz Creative Services to help.  45,000 ran in this year’s marathon and they all had to visit the Expo held at McCormick Place to pick up their official registration packets.

The Sun-Times goals were to gain new subscribers as well as sell special products like front page photos of runners on mock Sun-Times front pages and pre-orders for copies of the official race results edition. The ComedySportz players attracted visitors with a variety of games – among the most popular was “Name That Tune,” with the songs played on kazoos.

Our three-month-long celebration of 25 years proving that competition can be fun has just ended and what a great summer it was! The occasion of our 25^th Anniversary gave the chance to reconnect with old friends and meet new people in our community.  Let’s take a look back at some of the highlights.

Jump to July - Competing

Jump to August - Celebrating

Jump to September - Giving Back

July - Competing

We hosted and won the biggest World ComedySportz Championship ever!

226 players from every one of the 22 ComedySportz clubs across the U.S. and Europe came to Chicago to perform in matches and study the art of improv. Fans packed the Athenaeum Theater for nine shows over four days. We faced Los Angeles in the Championship match and decisively won over that very tough team from Hollywood.

A special thank you to the partners who helped us make this big event so special -- The John Hancock Observatory  www.jhochicago.com and Around Chicago Events  www.aroundchicagoevents.com.

August – Celebrating

ComedySportz alumni Deanna Moffit, David Miller, Joey Bland, Pat Gallen, Scott Goodhart, Nina Leone, Natalie Sullivan and Paul Bianco all returned for performances in our Alumni Weekend, August 6-8^th. After reliving the ‘80s – the decade of our birth – from August 13-15^th, we made tons of new friends around the neighborhood for our Lakeview Weekend. We had a special ticket offer for residents of the neighborhood and met local business owners who helped us out by displaying our posters.  The last weekend of the month, our friends from The Playground came over to join us for shows in our Comedy Theatre Challenge.

September – Giving Back

Each of the four weekends this month, we donated $5.00 per single full price ticket sold to a different charity. Together with donations made directly by our guests, we raised nearly $5,500.00 for these organizations.  The beneficiaries were The Night Ministry, who provides supportive services to persons struggling with homelessness and poverty; FunnyBones Improv, a group of professional performers who donate their time to entertain children in hospitals; The Lymphoma Research Foundation, whose mission is to eradicate the cancer that takes lives of people at all ages.

Our donation to Lymphoma Research Foundation was made in the name of ComedySportz ensemble member Mike Enriquez, who fell to this disease in January of this year.  Mike’s jersey was retired at a special show on September 20^th.  We wrapped up our month of “Giving Back” with fundraising for The Sam Thompson Foundation – a fund formed to raise money to defray the medical expenses of the late brother of our ensemble member Zach Thompson. Zach’s brother Sam passed in June of this year after a lifelong courageous battle against serious illnesses.

These three months were anything but business as usual, and were a great opportunity to look back and reflect on our mission of bringing laughter to our fellow citizens and to celebrate all the great people who have helped us in that cause over the past 25 years.

Wisconsin Badger and Fighting Illini fans are special guests October 4-6.

There’s nothing quite like a college football weekend. The game itself is great enough, but it’s the whole experience of celebrating with fellow fans and alumni before and after the game that makes it special.  So this fall, if you can’t get out of Chicago to go back to campus for the big game, we’ve got a way to keep the fever going beyond just the few hours of watching the game on TV.

Each weekend between now and November 17^th we’re making a special invitation to fans of two Big Ten schools facing each other on the field to put some comedy into their sports weekend. We’ll have drink specials themed for the two teams and recognition for their fans in the show.

If you can’t make it back to campus, the next best thing is to make it to our Lakeview neighborhood, home to official sports bars for each of the Big Ten schools. Watch the game on their big screen and then catch some comedy with fellow fans – all within a few blocks.

We just finished our first Big Ten Weekend, celebrating the Wisconsin-Illinois game.In upcoming weeks, we’ll be saluting…

October 11-13: Northwestern vs. Minnesota

October 18-20: Purdue vs. Ohio State

October 25-27: Michigan vs. Nebraska

November 1-3: Michigan State vs. Indiana

November 8-10: Purdue vs. Iowa

November 15-17: Wisconsin vs. Ohio State

(Games subject to change).